Geneva -- A group of civil society
organizations
from the North and the South have charged that a few industrialized nations
were
using pressures to undermine the UN Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) by narrowing UNCTAD's mandate to assist the developing countries.
The civil society groups expressed these concerns at an open hearing with
UNCTAD
officials and representatives of its government members. The hearing is part
of the
preparations for UNCTAD's Eleventh Conference to be held in June at Sao
Paulo in
Brazil.
These concerns were expressed at a media briefing by a number of them - the
US
based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), the South and East
African
Trade Negotiations Institute (SEATINI), OXFAM International, the Friends of
the
Earth International, the Brazilian Network on Trade, and Public Services
International, a trade union federation.
"For eight years, the US has been trying to wipe out UNCTAD's role - and the
UN-based commitment to development - from trade," said Ms. Kristin Dawkins,
Vice-President for International Programs at the IATP. "The WTO's mandate,"
she
said, "is narrowly focussed on commercial trade, and fails to consider all
social
dimensions of economic policy. We need stronger rules governing the
transnational
corporations at the global level, and greater flexibility at the national
level. And
UNCTAD must be doing both the analytical work and the multilateral
institution-building needed to manage trade for development."
The civil society groups, at their roundtable at UNCTAD, and at the media
briefing,
called on UNCTAD to address issues of commodity prices, and improve
international
support measures for development in Africa and the Least Developed
Countries.
Said Chandra Patel for the SEATINI: "The fatigue that characterizes the
international
community's response to the collapse in the commodity economy owes much to a
laissez faire climate that states that since markets are the key
determinants of prices
and are functioning well, little good can come from interfering with them.
Over time,
continuing reliance on market signals will help shift resources from less
efficient and
productive sectors, encourage diversification and improve overall
productivity.
"This view must be challenged," said SEATINI. "Failure to deal with the
commodity
crises will result in further declines in incomes, export earnings,
increased debt and
a setback to reforms."
Oxfam International's Ms. Celine Charveriat, pointed to the collapse of the
WTO
meeting at Cancun, and said against this background, UNCTAD-XI would be very
important. Unfortunately, the industrialized countries "are basically trying
to
undermine UNCTAD by watering down the negotiating texts." The US, she
charged,
is even proposing the deletion of references to the Doha Work Programme and
the
promises there that the Doha Development Round would be Development
Friendly.
To be true to its mandate, UNCTAD should take the lead on promoting
solutions that
would effectively benefit poorer people and countries, and make
"far-reaching
proposals and resist the pressure from some industrialized countries to
limit its role."
And given the current state of trade negotiations, the forthcoming UNCTAD-XI
must
address crucial issues for developing countries - such as Special and
Differential
Treatment (S&DT) in Agriculture, propose concrete steps to address collapse
of
commodity prices, which is still one of the biggest causes of world poverty
today,"
Oxfam said.
Ms. Ronnie Hall of FoEI spoke about the battles behind closed doors in the
1990s on
whether or not the WTO would be established as a UN special agency. But at
the end
of the Uruguay Round, it was made independent. As a result, there was "a
schism in
global governance" - with trade interests riding roughshod over crucial
development
and environmental concerns. These are all set to widen as the US and the EC
seek to
turn the tables completely, "demoting UNCTAD to a specialised agency of the
WTO", Hall said.
"The international Status Quo does not allow for an international
development which
is compatible with the global needs to grow, to generate wealth and to
overcome
poverty," said Ms Iara Pietrikovsky of the Brazilian Network on Trade.
The civil society groups called for greater coherence between all the
international
institutions that developing countries have to deal with - including the
WTO, World
Bank, IMF, the OECD and the UN agencies. There should be a system of global
governance where the UN agencies are the focal point and platform on which
coherence would be built; the burden of compliance would be on the Bretton
Woods
Institutions and the WTO.
"If we are to get true development," said Mike Waghorne of the Public
Services
International, "we need all hands on deck - and that means all hands, all
agencies,
playing their role, not the current situation where it is not just that the
left hand
doesn't know what the right hand is doing, but the right is actively
chopping off the
left."
"We must have international coherence, and a policy framework to enable
developing
countries to develop. But developing countries too need to look into their
policies and
have some international and national coherence, including on social
policies,"
Waghorne said.
Some of the civil society groups said that rather than compromise and agree
to a text
that reduces the UNCTAD mandate, it may be better for developing countries
to walk
away from Sao Paulo without a text, since legally then the Programme and
Plan of
Action and mandates agreed at Bangkok would prevail.
However, said Pietrikovsky such a failure would have implications for the
Brazilian
government under President Lula, and could make US relations with Brazil and
South
America even more difficult and complicated.
UNCTAD, the civil society groups said at the media briefing, has a very wide
mandate that it has failed to discharge as effectively as was possible. As a
result of
likely changes in senior management, it would be possible for UNCTAD to have
a
new drive and energy. It is the only residual institution that is concerned
with
development and "therefore we should strengthen it", the NGOs said.:
